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Maria-Elena Calderón – This Exploited Land of Iron Cultural Heritage Officer and David Mennear – This Exploited Land of Iron Administration Assistant

Introduction

This Exploited Land of Iron, our HLF Landscape Partnership Scheme, has had a busy and successful first summer with well attended events and exciting activities taking place across the North York Moors. This Exploited Land of Iron is investigating the once booming ironstone industry, which spread across the area from the early 19th century until the mid-20th century, although you may not easily notice its intrusion on the beautiful landscape today.

Following our first archaeological dig at Combs Wood (Beck Hole) back in May, our second archaeological excavation recently took place at the Goathland Incline over a two week period between 25 July and 5 August. It proved particularly popular with volunteers and passing visitors.

Today the village of Goathland is a peaceful and idyllic haven for tourists, a former spa town famous for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and for masquerading as the fictional village of ‘Aidensfield’ from the old TV series, Heartbeat. You wouldn’t know today to look around the village, but Goathland once played a brief but fundamental part in the 19th century ironstone mining industry, a noisy and disfiguring industry that required the transport of thousands of tonnes of ironstone across the North York Moors via railways. In fact not many historic photographs of the Goathland Incline survive at all. As such we didn’t quite know what existed or what remained. Targeted archaeological excavation, following a thorough study of the area and its history beforehand, was undertaken to investigate the remains at the Incline..

Goathland Incline: A Brief History of a Modern Mystery

The site itself dates to a brief period in the mid-19th century when the railway was in its infancy. The early Whitby to Pickering horse-drawn railway was designed in the 1830s by none other than George Stephenson, the famous and much in-demand ‘Father of the Railways’. For the majority of the line, wagons and carriages were hauled using horse power; however, due to the 1 in 5 gradient present between Beck Hole and Goathland, an alternative power source was required. Powered inclines had been in use for a number of years by this point, employed primarily at mines. At Goathland a gravity system was used to haul the wagons and carriages up the incline – water butts were filled at the top of the incline and their weight was used to offset the weight of the wagons themselves, effectively and somewhat spectacularly pulling them up the incline. Once the water butts were at the base of the incline, they could then be emptied and brought back up by horses to be used again.

In 1845 the horse-drawn railway was transformed into a steam hauled railway by the new owner, a certain Mr George Hudson. At some point the incline itself was also transformed to steam power with a stationary engine sitting at the top of the incline. The engine house is shown on the Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1849, but we’re currently unsure of the exact year that this new feature was installed. The conversion to steam power also required the installation of turntables at both the top and foot of the incline itself, as unlike the horses, locomotives could not turn themselves around in such a small space.

The incline was a perilous operation and was known to fail; a crash in 1864 killed 2 people and injured 13. In 1865 a deviation line was built which took a wider route with a shallower gradient that eliminated the need for an incline. The buildings were demolished, the site was abandoned to be subsumed back into Goathland village and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Dig Itself

Due to the early date of the railway at Goathland a lot of the layout relating to the gravity system remains unknown as it was replaced before the earliest ordnance survey maps. So we decided to open a series of trenches that targeted known historical structures and possible new structures identified by a LiDAR survey. Using remote sensing LiDAR maps the topography of the land from above and because it takes measurements from a variety of angles, it can effectively see though heavy vegetation and wooded areas. This allows for the identification of possible building structures or man-made earthworks within the targeted area.

Light Detection and Ranging, otherwise known as LiDAR, is a remote sensing method used in archaeology to examine the landscape surface. Here you can see the representation of the land around the historic site of the Goathland Incline, including a suspected turntable.The purple circle is the turntable and the blue rectangles the main trenches targeted within the red study areas

We placed three trenches over a circular feature suspected to be a turntable, one over a series of linear features shown in LiDAR and thought to be the remains of buildings, and one over the alleged engine house for the stationary engine.

The engine house location proved true but unfortunately not the rest. In archaeology, with both the best will and research in the world, you never truly know what you are going to uncover. The turntable was in fact a reservoir and what looked like building remains were probably instead the remains of allotment beds.

Our amazing volunteers hard at work on the trench that provided to be a bit of a damp squib.

The reservoir was interesting in itself as it turned out to be a clay capped earthen structure that had silted up over the years and had obviously been used as a rubbish dump. Finds such as jars, broken toys, Victorian glass bottles and ceramic wares gave us an insight into 1860-1940s Goathland life. Despite the late nature of the finds themselves, the structure itself we believe dates from the early gravity system, and offers us the only archaeological insight into that period. At that geographic level in Goathland there is no fast flowing water supply sufficient enough to fill the water butts for the gravity-assisted incline system. As such large water storage areas would have been required and allowed to fill on a slow trickle. Could this be what the reservoir was used for?

Getting down and dirty investigating one of the trenches with our Cultural Heritage Officer Maria Calderón and placement student Ewan Chipping to see what great work the volunteers have done.

Within the trench targeting the engine house we found substantial remains of stone walls 70-80cm (28-32”) thick with foundations continuing below a 1.4m (4’ 8”) depth from the surface level. It is clear that the engine house was a substantial structure with a basement. There were two internal rooms divided by a further stone wall. The building would have been roofed in slate, rather than the local vernacular of pantile; this is typical of railway buildings, as the companies that operated the railways worked on a regional or national level, and did not respect local building traditions. Sadly we found no evidence of conduits or the stationary engine. In all likelihood most of the metal worked was instead probably sold for scrap at some point. To the north of the building we found traces of a stone covered yard.

‘Have you found anything interesting?’ We certainly did! You can tell by the foundations of the stone walls in this trench that a substantial building once stood here, like the engine house.

Goathland Uncovered: Mystery Solved?

But we had not given up on the turntable and with the help of a local resident we gained permission to open further excavations on the site. We opened six small test pits and hit the remains of a turntable in three pieces; two edges and at the centre point, from which we can extrapolate the size. This was a highlight of the excavation and was the fruitful work of a few very determined volunteers. One of the smaller test pits also identified the corner of a brick building that had been demolished.

A successful dig then, but questions still remain regarding the Goathland incline site:

a) How deep does the engine house go?
b) Are there any remains in the rooms waiting to be discovered?
c) Where was the cable drum for the incline?
d) What is the small brick building?

With these questions lingering in our minds after the excavation we’ll now process the information recorded and help to produce archaeological reports based on the available evidence. As always with archaeological fieldwork there may be more questions than answers, but what this dig helped uncover is invaluable to learning about the industrial life of the Goathland Incline and the individuals who worked on it and lived nearby.

Last but not least, we also had time to celebrate Yorkshire Day on the 1st August with a good mug of Yorkshire Tea!

In amongst the digging we also managed to make a short film (in very windy conditions) – have a look here.

We would like to extend a big thank you to all of our volunteers who took part in the excavation, and also a big thank you to all of the members of the local community who came to visit us and asked great questions or provided invaluable insights into Goathland life and industry.

To learn more about upcoming events and volunteering opportunities, please contact the Land of Iron team on 01439 772700 or email us.

This Exploited Land of Iron is our HLF Landscape Partnership Scheme focused on the ‘blazing, booming, enterprising’* ironstone industry in and around the North York Moors in the 19th century, and its surviving legacy. The Scheme was officially launched in … Continue reading →

Our Senior Archaeologist is taking phased retirement, so before he goes he has been asked to reflect on his time with the North York Moors National Park.

Graham Lee – Senior Archaeological Conservation Officer

How do I sum up a career lasting over a quarter of a century in a few paragraphs? It is a strange feeling to have 26 years seemingly flash by so fast.

I started work for the North York Moors National Park in April 1990, having previously worked in the archaeology section of North Yorkshire County Council since the summer of 1983. I had decided many years before that I loved the north of England and had no desire to return to my southern ‘roots’.

One of my first tasks with the National Park was the completion of a management survey of one of our large estates, encompassing moorland and large blocks of forestry. This quickly whetted my appetite for the excitement of making new archaeological discoveries – often very subtle earthworks, no more than a handful of centimetres in depth or relief – despite an exceptional tradition of previous high quality archaeological fieldwork in the region. Working solo in large blocks of conifers was a good test of dedication – crawling under the branches of dense stands of conifers searching for vague earthworks mapped in the 1890s – and the steadiness of nerve, when yet another wretched pheasant exploded out of the leafy vegetation where I was just about to step! In recent years the delights of discovery have been broadening thanks to new technology and techniques, especially LiDAR which provides an aerial view through tree and ground-cover vegetation of archaeological remains that were previously hidden or obscured.

If you have a passion for the past, the North York Moors have something for pretty much everyone – enigmatic Neolithic rock art; surviving prehistoric pitted boundaries and avenues; upstanding Bronze Age funerary monuments and field systems; Roman encampments; medieval castles and monasteries…

Human industry is also well represented – from the earliest iron industry through the search for alum into the full-blown “iron rush” of the mid 19th century, the exploitation of coal and jet, and the plentiful local rivers managed to provide motive power for a range of watermills. Research and conservation priorities relating to these local industries finally led to our new HLF Landscape Partnership Scheme, This Exploited Land of Iron. Some 15 or so years in gestation, it is very rewarding to see new generations captured by the excitement of the important remains of our 19th century ironstone industry and the associated development of early railways – although the original scheme for a canal link between Whitby and Pickering would have been a sight to behold and a major tourist attraction if it had ever been built.

Into the 20th century, remains survive here from both world wars – in the form of coastal defences, army camps as well as troop training and target practice areas. Finds are still occasionally made of 2nd World War unexploded ordnance in former training areas across the North York Moors, in particular after the wildfire on Fylingdales Moor in 2003 which affected two square kilometres of heather moorland.

Although an environmental disaster – the severity of the fire in reducing the shallow peat cover to ash, this event was an archaeological revelation. Virtually everywhere you looked, subtle archaeological remains became visible, including the drip gulleys around former prehistoric round houses, low stony prehistoric boundaries and cairns, large numbers of previously unrecorded examples of Neolithic rock art and occasional shallow trenches which resembled grave cuts with a subsiding infill. As numbers of the latter quickly increased their interpretation became clear – slit trenches from 2nd World War troop training. I remember my first visit to the site after the fire when the ground was reddened and blackened, covered in ash and still smouldering; few trees had survived and many had toppled after the peat holding their roots in place had been burnt away. Flashes of colour were very noticeable, such as an adder emerging from its underground refuge having survived the conflagration. A major project ensued, both to protect and restore the moorland habitat and to record and investigate the breath-taking remains of surviving archaeology.

There have always been new specialisms to get to grips with. A visit to the Scheduled Rosedale iron calcining kilns with the Park’s Conservation Director at the time revealed that a portion of one of the kilns’ firebrick linings had collapsed the previous winter. This led to a major conservation project to stabilise these huge monuments which ran for three years in the mid 1990s, a forerunner of This Exploited Land which will continue the efforts to conserve these monumental sites 20 years on.

It has been such a pleasure working with like-minded and dedicated professionals, both in my own National Park, but also with colleagues throughout the family of British National Parks, and Historic England and Natural England. We’ve shared experiences and ideas to the betterment of our discipline from research to management, and also shared the excitement of attempting to bring our subject, which we love, to life for anyone who cares to see and to get involved.

The National Park Authority is currently looking for a new Senior Archaeologist to lead on archaeology in the North York Moors. The closing date for applications is 26 January 2017.

When businessmen visited the Beck Hole Ironworks in 1860 their report in the Whitby Gazette gave a beautifully poetic account of this new enterprise. Despite the author’s lyrical writing style the article also illustrates a perceived total domination over the natural world that was the foundation of the industrial revolution.

This is partly what This Exploited Land is all about. Although in modern times we may miss the elegant language of the Victorian era, many of us have a very different view of the natural world and the potentially devastating effects of humanity’s exploitation of the planet. The way that nature has reclaimed the mines of the Esk Valley and Rosedale is humbling to see and shows us that we are surrounded by a beautiful and fascinating world that we should use our intellect to care for rather than abuse. To do this best we need to remember and learn from the past, being inspired by the monumental relics in the landscape and the stories from our ancestors who lived very different lives in the North York Moors we now enjoy.

Transcribed from Whitby Gazette 16 June 1860:

“…It is our pleasing duty to report the successful operation of the Whitby Iron Company’s (Limited) Works, at Goathland, which we noticed in our last impression as having been blown in on 7th inst.

A few of our principal townsmen spent Monday evening at those Works, and were delighted with the various departments. The magnificent engine which supplies the blast for smelting the iron from the ore moves round like a thing of life, and at once the ever-lasting hills of the valley resound with the voice as of a tide bursting upon our shores.

We heartily wish the Company success, as the pioneers in a pursuit which is destined to revolutionise the habits and maxims of the valley of the Esk, and with the facility of the rails and our own good port, we venture, the day is not distant when capital and enterprise will demand that the whole of the district become one grand scene of industry, and that, from one end of the valley to the other, Old King Coal, supported by the genius of man, will assert his power in developing those vast storehouses of wealth which, during the last few years, have attracted the attention of strangers to those exhaustless beds of minerals which nature has provided and stored up in this locality, for the use of man in the arts of civilised life. And Whitby will one day have to rejoice in the fact, that she is one of the principal ports in the kingdom for the export of iron to the commercial ports of the world.

Beckhole, the little village at the head of the valley where these works are situate, has now a strange sight to look out upon morning and evening, which are ushered in with a torrent of molten iron and a flood of lava gushing forth from the bowels of the company’s furnace. The sweet songsters of the woods and glens are now giving up their claim to the morning’s dawn and evening calm. The _________ voices of the sons of toil mingling with the music of the compressed air of the blast engine, wait for the dawn of the East, whilst the perpetual columns of vapour, smoke, and flame, tell of the presence of man, successfully reducing to practice the maxim of the company’s tablet, viz “Tis the prerogative of man to command, develope, and appropriate to his service the elements with which God has surrounded him.” The tablet at the foot of which the above inscription is fixed commemorates the incorporation of the Company, the date at which the first Iron was made upon the Works, and the names of the Directors; and was cast from the Iron first run from the furnace.

In this noble course of action the W.I.C.L., have led the way. We heartily wish them god speed, and doubt not the success which awaits their spirited enterprise; and hail with joy the event as a blessing to the surrounding neighbourhood, and the watchword to the progressive establishment if similar works, whose effect will be to convert this district into one of the most thriving seats of the iron trade of this country, creating labour for man and beast, and scattering in its train the blessings of trade hitherto unknown in the locality.”

This tablet, referred to in the article and cast from the first Esk Valley iron, can be seen today in Whitby Museum.

It’s worth noting that Whitby Iron Company Limited was short lived – it was wound up in 1862.

Can you help?There are two words in the article that are obscured by a tear in the paper from which it was transcribed – can you suggest what the missing words before ‘voices of the sons of toil…’ might be? please let us know.

This Exploited Land (TEL), our HLFLandscape Partnership Scheme, is now building up steam with projects starting on the ground and the recruitment of new project staff underway. As well as myself we’ve got Elspeth Ingleby as our Natural Heritage Officer and Thelma Wingfield as our Administrative Assistant. The remaining two TEL vacancies for a Cultural Heritage Officer and a Volunteer Coordinator are expected to be filled by January. Special thanks to Louise Cooke for building and nurturing the Scheme to where it is today. We hope Louise will continue to be involved with TEL and will see all the project ideas become a reality over the next five years.

One of the first projects underway is the repair of the landslip at the East Kilns in Rosedale. The landslip is on the line of the old Rosedale Railway and is a popular route round the top end of the dale. The remedial engineering works will maintain safe access along the path, enable vital practical access to the two sets of kilns which will be subject to major consolidation during 2017/18, and help conserve into the future the distinctive landscape feature of the railway embankment as it carves its way along the hillside.

The works to stabilise the embankment and rebuild the path involve digging away all the loose material down to firm foundations and constructing four tiers of stone-filled gabion baskets topped with a new stone path. The front of the baskets that will be visible after the works have been faced with soil filled bags containing a specially selected moorland grass seed mix. Despite the cool autumn weather this seed is already germinating.

The works are due to be completed and the path reopened by mid-November.

During the works archaeologists have been keeping a watching brief to help identify and understand the construction of the railway. A couple of original sleepers were salvaged, one with the track shoe still in place. The profile of how the track was built up using waste from the calcining kilns (red/brown) and cinders from engines (black) can be clearly seen in the photograph below taken during the excavation.

Regular monitoring of the landslip by local residents reported on the Rosedale Abbey Blog had showed the slip getting progressively worse so time was of the essence for these repairs at the beginning of TEL. Now the same residents have been reporting on the works underway and will continue to monitor the site as it recovers.

To sign up for the mailing list for This Exploited Land and find out more about our exciting Landscape Partnership Scheme – see here.

This Exploited Land: the trailblazing story of ironstone and railways in the
North York Moors

This poem was written in the early 1930s at the end of Rosedale’s industrial age, and is a rare primary source. The Rosedale Railway had just closed in 1929, the last working component in the area’s ironstone industry.

The rhyming couplets present the landscape and the character of the dale, at that particular point in time, referencing the industrial structures alongside natural features, local buildings and people. There is an impression of time and continuity – linking before industry and after – the dale is returning to ‘Quietude true and sincere’, the mines are already ‘old’, and the name Leeman (co-owner of the 19th century Rosedale and Ferryhill Iron Company) is falling out of use. But the shops are still open, left over from ‘Busier days’, and there is a proviso – ‘For the present’ – attached to the ‘engines and drivers have gone’, as if industry could yet return.

A. Stands for Avenue, many know well,
Which leads into Rosedale, of which I shall tell.

B. Stands for Busier days Rosedale has seen,
But her beauty’s the same as of yore I ween.

C. Stands for Chimney the storm beaten pile,
Which can easy be seen for any a mile.

D. Stands for Douker wood, way down below,
In the vale where the violets and bluebells grow.

E. Stands for Engine shed, left all alone,
For the present its engines and drivers have gone.

F. Florence Terrace, once a busy place,
To one, Florence Leeman its name we trace.

G. Stands for Grange farm, on first turn to right,
‘ere’ the beautiful avenue comes into sight.

H. Stands for its Hills, which tower so high,
When lads we thought that they reached to the sky.

I. Its Ivy clad church, to there now we’ll repair,
For the names of The Lads are recorded there.

K. Reminds us, Knott cottage way up the hillside,
The pleasant home where Mat Peirson’s reside.

L. Stands for Leeman Grove built long years ago,
It has now got another name “School Row”.

M. Stands for Moorland, where when not wrapped in snow,
The Travellers Joy, and the white Heather grows.

N. Stands for Northdale, where if you search well,
You will find on its hillside the place called Job’s well.

O. Old Magnetic ore mines at Rosedale West,
For quality this was the very best.

P. Stands for Plane Trees an imposing spot,
You’ll find Robert Watson still there casts his lot.

Q. Stands for Quietude true and sincere,
If you love this life best you may find it here.

R. Readman’s boot shop your repairs here may send,
He has often had boots sent from Scotland to mend.

S. Stands for Spenceley and Stamper as well,
At whose store nearly everything they sell.

T. Stands for Thorgill, of this place we must tell,
You will find Charley Waller lives down in the dell.

U. Up to its crags we will now pass along,
Where the Rock pigeon nests and the fox has its young.

V. Verdant valley where the cattle graze,
And the streams trickle down through the leafy maze.

W. Wood End Villas, in the tall trees near by,
May often be heard the Wood Peckers cry.

X. Stands for Xmas, and don’t think it queer,
But here as else where it comes once a year.

Y. Stands for Yatts farm with Hartoft quite near,
The Peirson’s have lived here for many a year.

Z. Zig Zag climb to Bank Top you ascend,
Where the motorist oft fail on the hair-pin bend.

Relics of the industrial structures can still be found in Rosedale, as can the woodland and moorland, the trees, the buildings, and the family names. Although the Chimney has gone, Chimney Bank with its ‘Zig Zag climb’ remains.

The This Exploited Land Landscape Partnership Scheme (the trailblazing story of ironstone and railways in the North York Moors) will help understand and enhance the landscape and its legacy of 19th century ironstone exploitation, preserving it for future generations.

This Exploited Land has a wealth of stories to tell. These stories from the past can be traced on the landscape today and have tracks stretching out beyond the North York Moors.

For 30 years from 1836 the trains along the new Whitby to Pickering railway had to overcome the 1:15 incline at Beck Hole. The carriages were initially horse-drawn but when the trains came up against the steep gradient of the incline between Beck Hole and Goathland the only way up and down was pulling and holding the carriages on a system of wire ropes. Steam power took over from horses in 1845, but trains still had to negotiate the incline by means of winches. Winches are intrinsically dangerous; a fatal accident occurred in 1864. The delays, problems and dangers of using the incline motivated the construction of a more practical deviation line in 1865. This allowed steam locomotives to travel along the complete line for the first time, and this is the current route of the North York Moors Railway.

Above is a detail of the TEL Lidar survey undertaken in the development phase of the TEL Scheme. The defined line at the top shows the route of the current NYMR Whitby-Pickering Railway. The less defined line through the centre shows the route of the Beck Hole Incline.

So what happened to the ‘abandoned’ Beck Hole incline which connects the TEL landscape to Brazil and to innovations in railway technology that changed the ways railways worked through the 20th century…

In 1872 a 685 metre length of 3’7” (narrow) gauge track was laid on the disused Beck Hole Incline and successful tests were carried on a fell-system locomotive built by Manning & Wardle of Leeds. A fell-system uses a third rail to provide the necessary extra power and control when travelling up and down intense slopes. Manning & Wardle narrow gauges were exported around the world to Europe, Africa, the Indian sub-continent, Australasia and South America – so this short stretch of the Beck Hole Incline may have had an impact on the wider world opening up mountainous regions to exploitation.

Four fell-system locomotives were purchased from Manning & Wardle for use on the Cantagallo Railway in Brazil. This was Brazil’s first mountain railway linking Niterói to Nova Friburgo and allowed coffee to be shipped down from the mountains and out to the coast for export.

Back in the North York Moors, late in 1908 the railway line from Grosmont to the foot of the incline was re-opened for an Autocar service which ran in the summer months until the outbreak of the war in 1914. The North East Railway’s Autocars used early experimental petrol engines that generated electricity, and so are predecessors of the diesel and electric trains which took over the railways through the 20th century. The excursion/day trips by Autocar to Beck Hole saw tourists and visitors making use of industrial remains within the declining industrial landscape at the time.

The Beck Hole Incline is now the route of the Historic Rail Trail footpath between Goathland and Grosmont. Walking down the incline today it is hard to imagine how it worked and what it looked like in its hey-day. It is perhaps even harder to imagine how this now tranquil part of the North York Moors is associated with changes in railway technology and how Beck Hole can be connected to Brazil.

We’ve had excellent news from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) – we’ve got the funding for This Exploited Land (TEL).

This Exploited Land: the trailblazing story of ironstone and railways in the North York Moors Landscape Partnership Scheme aims to understand, protect and enhance the landscape and its legacy of ironstone exploitation.

We will tell the story of ironstone mining and the associated railways in the North York Moors during the hundred years between 1830 and 1930. It is an exciting and little known story of discovery and industrialisation in a landscape which what is now designated as a National Park. For most visitors, and even for some residents, the extent of the ironstone industry in the 19th century is a surprise. The scale, the extent and the influence it came to have on the development of the North East of England as a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution at the height of the Victorian Period is poorly understood and the story has never been properly told.

TEL will conserve, protect, record and present a range of important industrial archaeological sites within a distinctive landscape. It will strengthen natural habitats within that landscape: restoring ancient woodland, managing hay meadows and enhancing riparian corridors; and assist rare and threatened species such as ring ouzels and water voles.

The Scheme contains a range of projects under different themes:

Historic Environment;

Natural Environment;

Interpretation, Access and Engagement;

as well as cross-cutting elements which include community grants, a volunteer programme, training and education. The breadth of the Programme hopefully provides something for everybody and is structured in such a way that over the next 5 years and beyond we hope more people can get involved and share our passion for the landscape and the stories that lie at its heart.

Which of the 46 individual projects to be delivered over the next 5 years am I currently most excited about?

After the very long period of project development, it is the very first one – the works to repair the landslip at Rosedale East and to unblock the railway culvert at Reeking Gill.

These are essential works to (1) enable access along the Rosedale Railway to be maintained (and in subsequent years of the project allow access for conservation works) and (2) to ensure the survival of the manmade embankments along the route of the Rosedale Railway – and to retain this important feature of the landscape intact.

Thanks very much to everyone involved so far who have got us to where we are today.

Stay posted – this Blog is going to be an important means of sharing stories and pictures as TEL picks up steam.

Tammy Naylor – resident of Esk Valley and member of the This Exploited Land Executive Group

Now that the new footbridge spans the Murk Esk near the hamlet of Esk Valley I am regularly meeting friends from Dale End and Green End, not to mention seeing the early morning silver flash of our newly arrived barn owl. A beautiful sight greets the dawn as he spreads his wings and rises over the bridge, looking for rodents, before circling the old building connected with the whinstone mining, set in the bend of the river.

Historically Esk Valley and Green End were closely associated with whinstone mining. Whinstone is a hard basaltic rock formed when the Cleveland dyke cut up through local rocks during Tertiary times. Mines and quarries were opened on both sides of the valley in the 19th century, the stone being either crushed for road making material or knapped into stone setts to pave the streets of West Yorkshire. For the observant the dyke itself can be seen in the bed of the river under the railway viaduct and the Rail Trail dissects it in a short but deep cutting near the bridge. The newly resurrected bridleway follows the railway that brought the rock to the main Whitby to Pickering Railway for transportation. The barn that the owl sees as the perfect location is built of a jumble of brick linings from the nearby Beckhole Ironworks. These are both stories waiting to be told as part of This Exploited Land, along with the recycling of the abandoned industrial landscape by the natural environment.

The photo below is of the whinstone workers on the Green End side of the valley from circa 1900. The three ponies brought the stone out of the drifts and across the old bridge. They were housed in a now demolished stable in an old orchard off the Rail Trail.

Operating from 1861-1929 the Ingleby Incline section of the Rosedale Railway is a significant landmark in the TEL landscape. The incline connected the edge of the upland with Battersby Junction below, and the line onwards to Teesside and County Durham.

At this point the railway line rose up to 417.5m from a lower elevation of 183m over a distance of just 214m. The gradient of the incline itself averaged 1:5.5 and was 1:5 in places. It was a self-acting incline allowing ore laden wagons to be lowered down from the upland top whilst pulling back up empty wagons from the Battersby lowland level. The operation of the incline was not without risk, including the danger of runaway trucks – and a number of fatalities were recorded during its time in operation.

After the abandonment of the railway in 1929 the remaining features at Incline Top were later destroyed by the Royal Engineers in World War II to prevent their use as a navigation aid for aircraft, potentially guiding the way to industrial Teesside. However a large amount of very substantial stone work, brick work, timbers and metalwork survive on the surface, or buried just below the surface.

Looking out towards Teesside from top of Ingleby Incline

Looking up Ingleby Incline – remains of the tracks still visible.

At top of Ingleby Incline – substantial stone work.

The whole site has been damaged by weather and erosion – resulting in fracturing of brickwork, erosion of mortars, deterioration of timbers and stone. The fragmentary nature of the site and the damage and the subsequent removal of brickwork and stonework makes this site particularly fragile and the archaeological features are particularly difficult to read as so little remains in situ. But our understanding of the site is greatly enriched by surviving engineers’ plans and historic photographs – by T W Brotton (photographs c. 1890-1910) who worked at the Weigh House at Ingleby Incline Foot, and photographs by Tom Page, William Hayes and Raymond Hayes.

Ingleby Incline – remains of of metal and stone features.

Ingleby Incline – remains of brick features.

Structures at Incline Top:

Brake Drum House. Stone, timber and slate roofed structure. Constructed 1859-61, this original structure (which was the northern-end) housed 14ft diameter drums, this was damaged by fire in 1869 and repair carried out with replacement 18ft diameter drums. The drums wound the cables lowering and raising the laden and empty trucks. The structure is no longer in situ. The very large blocks of stonework have been pushed to the eastern side of the track bed.

Brake House 1 (eastern). This was constructed 1859-61, and served to control the speed of wagons on the incline when the 14ft diameter drums were in use. This was left as a ‘spare’ after the 1869 fire. This structure survives only slightly with some brick walling on the western side (where it is more protected from the raised ground). The surviving brickwork is now extremely fractured.

Brake House 2 (western). This was constructed in 1870 and served to control the speed of wagons on the incline when the 18ft diameter drums were in use. Little of this structure survives in situ – with just a few courses of the eastern wall. However there are very substantial quantities of timbers, and fractured brick work that has fallen down the slope to the west. The surviving brickwork is extremely fractured but has distinctive stamps of ‘Hartley … Castleford’.

Keps. These inclined planes with stone revetment walling were part of the incline control mechanism to prevent run-away trucks. They survive as low earthen ‘mounds’ with some of the revetment walling still in situ – but this is truncated and now fragmented where stonework has been robbed and/or fallen. Much of the mortar has washed out so the surviving stonework has enlarged joints that will be more susceptible to damage.

Cottage 1. A brick and slate roofed semi-detached cottage, some historic photographs show the garden plots having high-wooden fencing. This is now very fragmentary with little evidence on the ground but it did stand as more substantial walls until the 1960s/1970s.

Cottage 2. A brick and slate roofed semi-detached cottage with a single-storey ‘office’. Much less now survives of Cottage 2 and examination of the aerial photographs shows that this was already substantially taken down prior to Cottage 1.

Track. There were 5 tracks at the top of the incline, converging into two tracks for the incline itself, with diversion routes sited near to the top to manage ‘run-away’ trucks. In situ timbers are exposed at the break of slope but these are damaged by pedestrian and vehicle access resulting in further surface erosion and exposure of the timbers.

Last May, during the TEL development stage, a brief survey was undertaken at the incline site lead by members of the Kirby, Great Broughton and Ingleby Greenhow Local History Group. On site, we discussed and interpreted the extant features, measured the extant stonework, and created a photographic record. Subsequently the Group have analysed historic aerial photographs showing changes to the site over time, carried out archive research and assessed the condition of the remaining features.

Should HLF funding be forthcoming, the plan is to undertake further survey and documentation at the incline site, and at other sites across the TEL area. These smaller sites may not look as majestic now as remains such as the Rosedale Calcining Kilns, but each are an important gearwheel in the story of the ironstone industry and its communities.

As part of the investigative work back in May as series of evocative images were generated by John Davies of the Kirby, Great Broughton and Ingleby Greenhow Local History Group – see below. John explains how the images came about –

I have always been fascinated by old photographs and, since it was formed nearly 10 years ago, I have been acting as photo-archivist for Kirby, Great Broughton and Ingleby Greenhow Local History Group. One of our first projects was to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Rosedale Ironstone Railway, and in the course of the production of a heritage trail and a web site (www.rosedalerailway.org.uk), I had access to a number of old photographs of this awe-inspiring enterprise.

Last year, as part of the TEL project, I joined a group of fellow History Group members and NYM officers to survey the old industrial remains at the top of the Ingleby Incline. I took with me copies of old photographs and endeavoured to take new images from as near as possible to the old viewpoints. My initial plan was to produce “Now and Then” pairings of the new and the old but while processing the new ones, I came up with the idea of merging the century old photographs with their modern equivalents. With the help of the photo-editing software “Photoshop”, I managed to produce ghostly images appearing to loom out of the current landscape. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and for me these images evoke feelings that we are sharing the landscape with all those who have walked within it in the past.

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Located just to the north of York and surprisingly close to Teesside, the North York Moors National Park is a beautiful landscape of stunning heather moors, spectacular coast, ancient woodland, distinctive dales, dark skies and historic sites.
It's a great place for cycling and walking with miles of paths and tracks for you to explore.